by Jerry S. Mendoza - AP

The red-hot Henrik Zetterberg has nine points in the past three games for the Red Wings.

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The Red Wings hope to make it four in a row when they host the Dallas Stars at Joe Louis Arena tonight. The Red Wings come off an ugly 7-4 win, topped off with the first Red Wings hat trick in 108 games as Henrik Zetterberg netted his third with less than a second left.

The Stars lost to the Phoenix Coyotes Saturday night in Glendale 3-2 on goals by former Red Wing Robert Lang and Westland-native Mike Modano. University of Michigan graduate Marty Turco has heated up, going 5-1-1 in his last seven starts with a sparking 2.10 GAA. Dallas has scored two goals in each of their last six games.

Zetterberg won the First Star of the Week award Monday after a spectacular run featuring nine points in three games, including his first five-point game Saturday. Niklas Kronwall has seven points over that same stretch.

Mike Babcock said yesterday that he will start Jimmy Howard tonight, with the plan of giving Chris Osgood the start on Friday night against the Florida Panthers. However, he did note that Howard has been playing well the last three games, leaving the subtle hint that if Howard does very well tonight (like he did against Vancouver), Babcock would be amenable to riding Howard for a while.

Check out Defending Big D to read more about the Stars. Puck drops at 7:30 pm ET. The game is on FS Detroit, FS Southwest in Dallas, and NHL Network in the US (which means it is not on Center Ice). I'll be back here then!

More photos » by Jay LaPrete - AP

Brett Lebda (left), celebrates with Patrick Eaves and Kris Draper during the four-goal first period against Columbus.

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The Red Wings continue their three-games-in-four-nights run with a matchup against the Vancouver Canucks. Last night the Red Wings blew out the Columbus Blue Jackets 9-1, with their first nine-goal team performance in two years. Niklas Kronwell had two goals and an assist, while Jimmy Howard made 25 saves

The Canucks come in having lost to the St. Louis Blues 6-1 on Tuesday night. They come into Joe Louis Arena to play the fourth of a five-game road trip. Henrik Sedin scored the lone Vancouver goal that night. His nine goals give him the team lead and puts him in a tie for 11th in the NHL. The Cancucks hold the fourth best power play in the NHL, with a 24% conversion rate. 

Detroit won the previous meeting between these two teams 5-4 on October 27. Pavel Datsuyk (who scored last night) had two goals that night.

The game is on FS Detroit in the US and on Canucks PPV in Vancouver. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 ET. I'll be chatting along below. Please join me!

The Red Wings head to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets in their first meeting of the season tonight. The Red Wings come in off their 5-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs: a loss that saw the Wings also lose Jason Williams to a broken fibula.

Despite the fact the Wings have earned a point in eight of the last ten games (5-2-3), they still seem to not be firing on all cylinders (as evidenced by Saturday's contest). With a seriously depleted roster, the Wings sit 11th in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, Columbus is in a tie with Chicago for the lead in the Central division. The Blue Jackets defeated the Carolina Hurricanes on goals from Rick Nash, Nikita Filatov and Jared Boll, all coming within a 2:41 span in the third period.

It will be interesting to see how Ville Leino does with increased ice time and responsibility after the Williams injury. He has only one point in the past 10 games. Henrik Zetterberg has 10 points in the last 10 games, including three goals the past five games. The Wings will play three times in four days (tomorrow night at home against Vancouver and Saturday night against Anaheim).

FS-Detroit and FS-Ohio have the game. I'll be commenting along below!

by Paul Sancya - AP

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The Toronto Maple Leafs come off a much needed win over the Carolina Hurricanes. The matchup was between the league's two worst teams, but that doesn't mean there's any reason to sleep on the Leafs. Detroit, however, is on a three game win streak and has gone 4-0-1 in the last 5 games. 

This Original Six matchup will likely center around defense. Toronto is averaging only 2.43 goals a game and have a defenseman leading in the points column with Tomas Kaberle's 18. 

What to look for: Lots of shooting from Detroit against a team that gives up the most goals in the league and has the worst penalty kill as well. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Leino should be able to find seams in this defense and get shots to the net.

Puck drops at 7:00 p.m. ET and will air on CBC in Canada and NHL Network in the US

Pension Plan Puppets is the SB Nation Leafs affiliate. 

More photos » by Paul Sancya - AP

Henrik Zetterberg has nine points over the last nine games and is tied for the team lead with 12 points.

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The Detroit Red Wings take their two-game winning streak against the red-hot San Jose Sharks at Joe Louis Arena tonight. The Sharks are on a six-game winning streak, leading the Pacific Division with 23 points and trailing only the Colorado Avalanche (24 points) in the Western Conference.

San Jose comes in having beaten the Columbus Blue Jackets Wednesday night 3-2 via a shootout. 8-2 in the last 10 games, Patrick Marleau has scored a point in his last nine starts for the Sharks. Dany Heatley is tied for sixth in the league in goals with 10. Meanwhile, Evgeni Nabokov has a sparking 10-3-1 record in 2009, with a 2.38 goals against average.

It's the first meeting of 2009-10 for these two teams: they split the regular season series last year, with the home team winning every game.

The game is on FSN-Detroit and CSN California. Comment away below!

by Jimmy Jeong - AP

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The Wings return to the Joe from the road trip on a good note following the win over Calgary. As if facing Ilya Bryzgalov, Roberto Luongo, Craig Anderson, and Miikka Kiprusoff weren't enough, the Wings get the defending Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas to shoot at tonight. Thomas also benefits from a good defense around him to help keep shots to the outside. Although the offense isn't nearly as potent this year as last year, the Bruins still have undeniable talent and much like the Red Wings are trying to simply coordinate it all in an effective manner.

Two teams on the relatively same page in terms of dominance last year and sputtering thus far this year are realizing the points are going to be precious this year. Should be a hard fought game with lots of effort from both sides.

What to look for: The physicality of Boston versus the injured/sick Red Wings. I'm looking forward to watching Pavel Datsyuk versus Zdeno Chara. Will Tomas Holmstrom continue on his offensive resurgence? 

Puck drops at 7 p.m. ET and will air on Versus or TSN. As always, GO WINGS!

Stanley Cup of Chowder is the SBNation Bruins site.

by Paul Sancya - AP

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The Detroit Red Wings finally wrap up their five-game, 11-day road trip tonight in Calgary against the Flames.

The biggest development for the Wings this week was the loss of forward Valtteri Filppula, who broke his wrist on Thursday evening in a game against Edmonton. He will be out 6-8 weeks.

"Obviously, I feel terrible," said Filppula, who recently was moved up to the second line. "But there's nothing I can do about it now."

The injury occurred on a hard, clean check by Gilbert Brule.

"It's a big blow, obviously," Babcock said. "We're going to have to buckle down as a team. It doesn't matter who's not here. It's about who is here. We are going to miss Fil. You don't replace good players like that. But we have to find a way to win games."

In other news, Ville Leino has been scratched from the lineup today which I find surprising since they lost Filppula to injury, but head coach Mike Babcock has made it clear he has not been pleased with Leino's play so far this season.

"Ville’s not working on any line. That’s clear. He’s having a day to watch,'' Babcock said. "He hasn’t played hard enough, so he’s going to watch the game and the other guys are going to play.’’

Chris Osgood will get the start in net tonight and here's what he told The Detroit News about it:

"I feel good," he said. "I have to play better than I did in Vancouver, but it was only (seven) minutes. I would have hoped to stay in but I didn't get that opportunity. I have to let that go and move on."

The Calgary Herald spoke with Todd Bertuzzi, who played for the Flames last year, about his return to the Wings this season.

You can catch tonight's game on CBC and FSDetroit Plus when the puck drops at 10 p.m. EDT. Don't know which channel FSDetroit Plus is on? Visit this page at FoxSports.com for that info. Go Wings!

by Darryl Dyck - AP

Slick Willy celebrates the game winning goal against Vancouver (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

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Detroit comes off a much needed win over the Canucks, scoring five times on one of the league's elite goalies Roberto Luongo. They'll need some more of that type of offensive production again tonight against the Oilers. Nikolai Khabibulin will likely start for the Oilers and Jimmy Howard will start in net for Detroit, coming off his first win of the season in relief effort of Chris Osgood. The top line of Dustin Penner, Sam Gagner, and Ales Hemsky has been good for the Oilers and could make things hard on Detroit if the wrong lines are out there against them. 

For my statistical preview of the Oilers from yesterday, click here or simply scroll down.

What to look for: Look for Tomas Holmstrom and Pavel Datsyuk to try and continue on their recent success tonight. Valtteri Filppula is another guy to watch that could get some good offensive chances--passing and shooting--against this Oilers team that allows a good chunk of shots.

Puck drops at 9:30 PM ET and will air on FS-D and TSN. As always, GO WINGS!

Oilers SB Nation member: The Copper & Blue. Derek Zona of The Copper & Blue had this interesting bit on the Oilers:

The Oiler flu has struck. At least 13 players have now been affected by some version of the flu, including H1N1 carrier Ladislav Smid.
Some have played through it - Dustin Penner, Smid, Tom Gilbert - others have either left games or been a scratch - Ales Hemsky, Gilbert Brule, Mike Comrie, Lubomir Visnovsky. Combined with concussions for Sheldon Souray and Steve Staios and a lingering back problem for Fernando Pisani, the Oilers are suffering at this point. Their red-hot start has ground to a halt with the onset of the flu. If Visnovsky is unable to go tonight, the Oilers will have Jason Strudwick, Taylor Chorney, and Theo Peckham in the lineup. It could get ugly.

Complete game coverage here: Red Wings vs Oilers coverage

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